Pathological behavior patterns are often observed in patients in the ICU. In a Surgical ICU (SICU), 7% (22/322) of a patient population required psychiatric consultation during a 6-month period. As a group, these patients had more prolonged stays, more frequent requirements for mechanical ventilation, a higher incidence of cardiac arrest and a higher mortality rate than the entire SICU population. The psychiatrist was asked to evaluate multiple behavioral syndromes, some of which were irreversible concomitants of grave illnesses. However, with certain syndromes, psychiatric assistance greatly facilitated the resolution of problems that hampered pre- and postoperative management and the patient's eventual recovery.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Chronic bacterial tonsillitis: fact or fiction.

Chronic bacterial tonsillitis can be validly supported etiologically by quantitative bacteriologic methods. The following observations are based on a recognition that the mere presence of bacteria is much less significant than the level of bacteria present. The chronically infected adult patient may be characterized by tonsils subclinically harboring greater than 10(5) bacteria/gm as opposed to the control patient with 10(3) bacteria/gm. Useful features in predicting high bacterial levels are (1) low number of crypts, (2) presence of nodal hypertrophy, and (3) tonsils small by actual size. Estimated tonsil size, determined preoperatively, shows no statistically significant correlation with either actual size or degree of tonsil sepsis.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Double-blind comparison of iodamide and diatrizoate for excretory urography.

A double-blind comparison of meglumine iodamide and Renografin 60 (52% meglumine diatrizoate and 8% sodium diatrizoate) for bolus excretory urography was performed. Doses of 0.8 cc/kg. to a maximum of 55 cc were administered to fifty patients, twenty-five receiving each drug.There is a suggestion that iodamide may be superior to diatrizoate in pyelocalyceal opacification while being equal to diatrizoate in parenchymal opacification and in types and severity of side-effects.

Adolescent↗